What's the best thing about PL5?

Using the mousewheel helps sometimes but even this is not accurate.

This function is known, but – to repeat from post #53 – what I don’t like at all, dragging the mouse pointer across I’m not able to keep the value I started with.

Instead I have to read the start value, drag across and then try to match it, before I can correct in smaller increments. That is really annoying – and could be solved with an additional key.
( see in detail → Turning the graduated filter - #21 by Wolfgang )

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Ah, yes, I see I’ve discussed this with you before! :slight_smile:

The on screen display UI is past its sell bye date and is limiting PL, these issues will go away when these controls are moved to the normal menu.DXO look committed to that change in UI and it really needs to happen as a point update in V5.

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I agree with Andrew on the warmth and Hue sliders and regard them as pretty much unusable. The way I would like to see DXO go is to use the existing White balance sliders.

Preferably all applicable menu controls should apply to Local Adjustments. Local adjustments are simply a selection of pixels from the main image so why can’t the normal menu controls impact the selected pixels, rather than having two different menu controls? Surely makes for a cleaner UI and consistent controls?

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The selection is excellent the UI execution could be so much better if DXO implemented a “Fill Mask” option and also allowed the Luma and Chroma selectivity to the Brush mask.

A quick and lazy brush selection can then be refined by Luma or Chroma. This can be done in other software and would enhance the good work that has already been done on this feature.

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This principle was used in Nik Viveza2 and still is in ColorEfex4 (different layout / different as there are 50+ filters).

The selection is excellent the UI execution could be so much better if DXO implemented a “Fill Mask” option and also allowed the Luma and Chroma selectivity to the Brush mask.

… the brush mask at the moment acting like with Luma & Chroma set to 0.

I also got my hopes up when I found out about this but unfortunately it works really badly. You have to pull your cursor perfectly horizontally to the side or else once it engages low gear you are 1000K out and then the low gear cannot get you back to the region you started in. You end up dragging your cursor all over the place. It’s just back-to-front. It seems common sense to me that it should start in the low gear and then move to the high gear. Who starts his car in top gear?!

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Andrew, Alec is on MacOS and this ‘dragging out’ only exists for PL (Win).
– So, he might be happy with a redesigned RHS menu …

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I know other people complain about that and I might be convinced once I try having the controls on the side but I’m quite comfortable with having the control point sliders there. Been using them like that since the days of Capture NX. What worries me is separating the the controls from the point like that. Wouldn’t it become confusing if you have lots of control points and wouldn’t it add to the burden of mouse movement?

… Come to think of it, no, your eyes would have to be in a different place when making the adjustments. I don’t think I’d like that at all! It would be even worse for me on my dual-screen setup.

I don’t think you read my comment. It should be obvious from my comment that I know this. To copy and paste:

"Yes, the equalizer - Warmth, Hue and Tint. They are way too over-reactive. I work a lot on beaches and I need my warmth adjustments to be subtle. This is proving a serious frustration for me. Even if I put my mouse in sniper mode I find it impossible. The smallest increment I can make it jump in is about 175 K.

Even with that sideways drag it’s frustrating to make a subtle adjustment. By the time I’ve dragged across to get first gear, I’m out by a thousand kelvin and then it’s practically impossible to get it back to the range I was working in because now the increments are too small.

It’s implemented counter-intuitively. It should be that the initial drag of the mouse gives you small increments while a sideways drag can shift it up a gear. Who starts his car in top gear and then moves down to first?!"

Maybe you’re on a Mac so you see the real problem we have on a PC?

Also being on dual screen, when using LocalAdjustments sometimes I ‘switch’ the RHS menu to


to avoid to long ‘travel’.

Can I ask how your reluctance to move sliders to the side affects how you use the local adjustments panel for things like mask selectivity, opacity, hiding/showing, duplication, reversal and deletion of adjustment layers?

Absolutely. I like the controls on the screen. What I would like is to be able to drag the controls somewhere else on the screen sometimes.

The other missing piece is a modifier key – it could be shift or option, which when pressed slows the sliders down to 1/5 normal speed. What happens to me now is what some of you have described. I am aiming for Highlights -10 and have to settle for -7 to -14, whatever I can hit which is roughly in the range. Trying to hit a specific number is very difficult. Or Exposure +20, I end up trying four or five times before I get close with numbers between +12 and +36.

Imprecision when making adjustments doesn’t just happen with local adjustments. It happens with the palettes too although it’s not quite so bad. Another member pointed out to me we can use the up and down arrow keys to adjust palette values when the palette is focused which helps sometimes but is not as useful as lower sensitivity when dragging when a modifier key is pressed.

Adding modifier this lower sensitivity mode via modifier key everywhere would fit in well with the simple and attractive interface of PhotoLab and for which DxO is well known and appreciated. It’s the kind of small touch which would radically improve usability and which is not hard for either experts or beginners to learn.

Hi,
we have discussed this theme March 21
Question…is there any possibilty to make a fine tuning of a value.
For example I create a U-point and bring the shadows to 40…uups that was a little to much… and i want decrease it by values of 1…sometimes it’s very difficult

I look for something like it works with the opacity of a control point …as long as the mouse pointer is over the opacity slider you can use the left/right arrows at the keyboard to make -/+ 1 steps"

and I am tired of pointing out that many suggestions in the EA were not heard, ignored or forgotten. This is also similar with the FR’s

So we will wait for PL6 :innocent:

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@Joanna I’m not sure what you’re referring to but if it’s moving the control point controls to the side panel then I have no problem with making global adjustments or gradated mask adjustments via the side panel. It’s just that when I make local control point adjustments I like having the controls right there. I seldom have that feeling others seem to have of them getting in the way. Maybe it’s because they are less visually intrusive than they were with Capture NX2. Although, now it seems this might change with more controls being added with every new version.

I agree. This has been an irritation for me since the beginning that many of the sliders are over-reactive and it is too difficult to make subtle adjustments.

As a completely irrelevant aside, how do you get your equipment listed beside your name like that? I looked at my profile settings and couldn’t find a place for that there.

Either of these options would work for me:
• a modifier key to make the slider work in smaller increments, but it would make more sense to me to have the reverse where smaller increments are the default and the modifier accelerates
• Make the finer increments the default and do the sideways drag for the acceleration. Like I keep saying: who starts his car in top gear?!

Andrew,

If you go to your profile (choose your image in the top righthand corner, then select the person icon) and its Preferences option, then within that the Account option, there is a Name box within which you can enter text.

Some forum members have suggested it would be helpful to include in this field the PhotoLab products and versions you use, the OS you are using and the make of camera - as this might help determine the relevance of posted comments.

Hope this helps.

Paul

I don’t think we should be patient and wait for this improvement in PhotoLab 6. It’s high time DxO listened to this basic and essential usability request.

In my opinion, the excess sensitivity in the sliders is a bug. It’s not a feature request but a bug fix.

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